Akram Al-Turk

Akram Al-Turk is a Research Associate at the Moritz Center for Societal Impact at the UT School of Social Work. He also serves as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the LBJ School. His research focuses on housing insecurity (including homelessness) and how it is affected by and affects people’s health and well-being. Currently, he leads research projects that focus on the reasons that people become housing insecure and the effects that homeless service programs have on the housing stability and health outcomes of people experiencing homelessness.

Before coming to UT, Akram was the Senior Director of Research and Public Policy at the Ending Community Homelessness Coalition, an organization that focuses on homelessness in Travis County. In that capacity, he and the research team he oversaw published reports and dashboards that focused on homelessness in Austin and Travis County. He also worked closely with service providers, policymakers, and other community partners and conducted community-based research—including projects focused on health equity and the barriers to access to homeless services that some people face.

Previously, Akram worked as a researcher and publications manager at the Brookings Institution. He also served as a program officer at the International Budget Partnership, then part of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Akram earned his PhD in Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master’s in Global Policy Studies from the LBJ School.